2021 news

November/December 2021- Urban Forest Patch Sustainability Research – An Update

Research on urban forest patch perseverance and sustainability over time continues to proceed forward at BUFRG.  Our pilot study "Indiana University’s Woodland Campus: A case study of urban forest patch sustainability" has been completed and a manuscript is tentatively accepted for publication.  A second study “City of Bloomington Urban Forest Patches: Perseverance and sustainability 1939-2021” is progressing nicely as we identify surviving and lost patches and investigate governance impacts on patch sustainability. The research direction we are identifying for both Bloomington and a broader metropolitan urban areas approach is to seek social, institutional, and ecological drivers of urban forest patch governance and sustainability over time. Sustainability here is defined as perseverance, either by formal protection, informal governance mechanisms, or relevant patch qualities.

The research methodology we are developing will allow for an analysis of the following research questions:

1) What social and ecological drivers are associated with urban forest patch perseverance, or sustainability over time, in large metropolitan areas of the eastern United States?

2) Which governance strategies are associated with success in sustainability?

3) In what cases do urban forested patches meet the definition of common-pool resources?

October 2021- Fischer article featured in Sycamore Land Trust Newsletter – The Trees Issue, Fall 2021

This past summer the Sycamore Land Trust reached out to Burney Fischer to contribute a column for their Fall 2021 Twig Newsletter. He drafted an article “How One Looks and Thinks about Forests is Important!” to present a forester’s perspective on looking beyond individual trees and seeing the forest, whether it be a rural forest or an urban forest.  The perspective is in contrast to most of the articles which focused on individual trees rather than the forest as a system.  The whole newsletter is attached and is posted at The Twig : Sycamore Land Trust.  Burney is a long-time member of the Sycamore Land Trust Advisory Committee About : Sycamore Land Trust   

September 2021, part two-BUFRG researchers present at municipal leaders summit

BUFRG researchers Sarah Mincey and Stephanie Freeman-Day were recently invited to offer a special virtual presentation to Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) city and town managers regarding Indiana Tree Ordinances. AIM, the official voice of municipal government in Indiana, includes more than 460 cities and towns as members of the professional organization. In August, AIM presented a special e-Workshop for Town and City Managers. Mincey and Freeman-Day coordinated with State Urban Forestry Coordinator, Carrie Tauscher; Davey Resource Group Consultant, Aren Flint; and Melissa Begley, Assistant Planning Directory City of Columbus – Bartholomew County to develop the invited talk, "Don’t Leaf it to Chance – Adopt or Update your Tree Ordinance." The presentation offered the speakers' experiences with tree ordinance best management practices and reviewing and/or redrafting years-old tree ordinances. Mincey's portion of the presentation outlined the purpose and importance of a tree ordinance, particularly given the uncertainty that climate change poses to managing urban trees. Freeman-Day shared her analysis of Indiana community tree ordinances - their association with other best management practices and Tree City USA designation. The presentation powerpoint is available here.

September 2021- Two new O’Neill SPEA masters students join BUFRG

This Fall, we welcome two new researchers to our team, Anagha Gore and Rodoshi Sinha. Both are seeking MPA-MSES degrees from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, with Anagha planning to graduate in December 2021 and Rodoshi in December 2022. Rodoshi brings an interest in biotechnology and ecosystem conservation. Anagha focuses on municipal resilience and climate change adaptation. Rodoshi and Anagha will be working on our current BUFRG project exploring connections between governance, ecological conditions, and urban forest patch sustainability over time in the city of Bloomington. The urban forested patches project (scroll down to story from May 2021 for details) is funded by both an Ostrom Research Award and a Sustainability Research Development Grant.

August 2021- Second article highlighting BUFRG urban forest program sustainability research published in Indiana Arborist Association newsletter

Read article here

This summer, BUFRG researchers have published a two-part series describing findings from our research project, Indiana Municipal Urban Forestry Programs: How are they addressing program sustainability. The first article (scroll down to our June 2021 update for details) focused on linkages between urban forest program sustainability and broader community sustainability efforts. The second article examines attributes of municipal urban forestry programs. Overall, we found 74 municipalities had active urban forestry programs, defined as being a Tree City USA and/or receiving Community Urban Forestry grants within the past 10 years. Urban forestry programs ranged from being minimally active, to a few taking strong steps towards long term sustainability, including actions such as linking urban forest management to city sustainability plans and considering climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban forest management and planning.

July 2021- Burney Fischer and Stephanie Freeman-Day partner with City of Bloomington to survey residents on urban forestry and tree planting

BUFRG researchers Fischer and Freeman-Day will be administering a survey of residents living in Bloomington neighborhoods selected for large scale tree plantings. The surveys will be mailed to households prior to the plantings, which are scheduled for early Spring of 2022. The aim of the surveys is to better understand residents’ viewpoints on environmental conditions in their neighborhoods, the value of urban trees, and the role of the city’s urban forestry department. A follow-up survey will be sent to respondents after the plantings to assess impacts of the tree plantings on neighborhoods and individual residents. As a result of the partnership, the City, which is providing funding support, will receive a written analysis and an oral presentation of our findings.

June 2021- New BUFRG Articles for Indiana Arborist Association Newsletter

See first article here

The Bloomington Urban Forestry Research Group (BUFRG) has over the years continued to ask itself to clarify the meaning of urban forestry program sustainability, particularly within the state of Indiana. In an unpublished 2012 BUFRG study by Vogt and Fischer we attempted to gain a better understanding of the connection between urban forest programs and broader sustainability programs for Tree City USA (TCUSA) communities in Indiana. We hypothesized at the time that community sustainability and urban forestry efforts are thematically related, and cities with an interest in one might naturally take an interest in the other. Since 2012 the number of Indiana communities engaged in active municipal urban forestry programs is little changed and so we decided in 2018-19 to explore what progress has been made regarding program sustainability and specific efforts to address urban forest sustainability. The first paper of the series, published in the Spring issue of the IAA newsletter, overviews our past and current research efforts in assessing Indiana’s active municipal urban forest programs and how they are addressing urban forest sustainability and linkages to their city’s sustainability efforts. The next paper in this series will highlight our findings based upon a search of public documents regarding the 75 or so active (2019) Indiana municipal urban forestry programs.  We identify program attributes from those minimally engaged in urban forestry to those that are gaining a real foothold on sustainability to those striving to do their best to sustain both their programs and their urban forests. 

May 2021- BUFRG researcher Stephanie Freeman-Day awarded Ostrom Research Award and Sustainability Research Development Grant

Stephanie Freeman-Day has received funding for research on urban forested patches from both the Ostrom Workshop and the Integrated Program in the Environment. Her project, done along with mentor Burney Fischer, investigates the sustainability of urban forested patches over time. The study area is the city of Bloomington, beginning with its early history and moving into the present. Freeman-Day will investigate what types and forms of governance and additional social and ecological characteristics are associated with long-term sustainability and/or protection of forested patches. Funding will allow opportunities for graduate students to join BUFRG to collaborate on this research and for the project to become a focal point in Freeman-Day’s upcoming dissertation.

April 2021- Fischer selected as Special Issue Editor for Sustainability Journal – Forward Thinking Urban Forest Management for Sustainable Cities

Burney Fischer and coeditors Rich Hauer (University of Wisconsin-Steven Point) and Jess Vogt (DePaul University-Chicago) will work as an editorial team for a 2021-22 Special Issue of Sustainability – “Forward Thinking Urban Forest Management for Sustainable Cities.”  The link to the callout for papers is the following: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/forward_thinking_urban_forest.

Briefly, the theme of the Special Issue is as follows: we aim to invite papers that highlight forward thinking urban forest management for sustainable cities. We broadly define sustainable urban forests as meeting future needs of people through using the most modern and original practices that meet the social and ecologic needs of a community. We invite submission of papers for publication with a focus on integrating sustainable urban forestry and related urban greenspace management into sustainable cities. Topical areas should involve some aspect of sustainable practice through urban forest management through examples such as:

• Adapting to and planning for climate change
• Growth & longevity studies that explore urban forest management over decades or longer in time
• Inventory & assessment that lead to integrated plans and connection to sustainable city planning
• Innovative educational outreach programs that link urban forestry to sustainable cities
• Integrative and polycentric governance approaches to incorporating urban forest management within sustainable cities/urban areas
• Meta-analysis of multiple cities and/or urban areas

• Models that incorporate urban forestry sustainability into fostering sustainable cities

• Urban tree health detection and planning for the future

March 2021- BUFRG researcher presents at Indiana Academy of Science

Stephanie Freeman-Day presented “Indiana University’s Woodland Campus: A case study of urban forest patch sustainability” at the Indiana Academy of Science’s Ecology Section Meeting (online conference) on March 20.  The presentation  highlighted the research question “How have IU’s green spaces changed over time and what drivers relate to preservation and sustainability of campus natural areas?”  An abstract of the paper has been reviewed by the editor of a Special Issue of Arboriculture and Urban Forestry - Smart Urban Forestry: Digital technologies and data for planning, design, and management, and a full manuscript has been requested by June 1^st.

February 2021- Sarah Mincey interviewed for article on urban heat island mitigation and urban trees

Salon’s website recently featured a story “Why Phoenix may be uninhabitable by the end of the century”  that discusses the effects of urban heat island (UHI), which are exacerbated by rising temperatures associated with environmental change. The story focuses on the role of urban trees in mitigating UHI and features input from Dr. Mincey on both the biophysical effects trees have on cooling ambient air temperature and demographic factors associating inequity in access to urban trees and the cooling effect they have on urban environments. Mincey echoes recent work BUFRG researchers have done on redlining, stating “tree canopy cover is lowest in low-income and minority communities” and "formerly redlined neighborhoods – more likely low-income and minority communities – are today five degrees hotter in summer, on average, than areas once favored for housing loans with a couple western cities – Portland and Denver – seeing greater than 12 degrees hotter in summer in the parts of these cities haunted by redlining legacies." According to the City of Phoenix website , city leaders are working with Arizona State University to improve municipal urban tree canopy.

January 2021- BUFRG Co-leader Sarah Mincey awarded grant through IU’s Racial Justice Research Fund

Mincey’s new project, Access to Sustainable Urban Tree Benefits: A Statewide Assessment of Racial Equity and Urban Forest Ecosystem Services investigates race-based inequity in access to urban forest quantity and quality in cities throughout Indiana. The research questions investigated in this project come directly from BUFRG collaborator Shannon Watkins’ 2018 publication where patterns were found indicating people of color are less likely to have access to the urban forest in terms of quantity (canopy cover percentage) and that more research is needed investigating urban forest quality and its relationship with race. Mincey will conduct the project along with co-PIs Heather Reynolds (Biology) and Dana Habeeb (SICE) and collaborators Jeff Wilson (IUPUI Geography) and Sam Hamlin (Biology postdoctoral fellow). Also contributing to the project will be BUFRG collaborators Stephanie Freeman-Day, Hannah Gregory, and Clint McGill. The Racial Justice Research Fund was created to support innovative projects from a broad range of fields that will contribute to advancing racial justice and equity. Mincey’s project is also featured on O’Neill SPEA’s new Racial Justice Research page.